


tell me you love me

by snorkeldog



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ;;very soft, Babysitting, Carousels, Domestic Fluff, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Shopping Malls, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, because i need soft, its just soft, keith is in charge and he takes advantage of it, lapslock, shiro and coran are just mentioned, the space mall, well “babysitting”
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 04:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14866409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snorkeldog/pseuds/snorkeldog
Summary: [13:51] Keith: taking you three to the space mall[13:54] Lance: wtf that’s rly sudden + we don’t need a babysitter?[13:55] Keith: word says you guys launched a robot into space the last time you were left alone[13:55] Lance: we did...[13:55] Lance: ..no such thing— in which keith and the garrison trio take a break from their stressful lives with a second trip to the space mall...chaos ensues





	tell me you love me

**Author's Note:**

> this is very self indulgent
> 
> title and chapter names are from the song tell me you love me by galantis and throttle

allura’s arms are crossed and she looks distressed. her eyes are shut and one eyebrow looks like it’s twitching.

there’s some commotion in a room nearby, a cacophony of voices, but keith has always considered that a norm of the castle. he doesn’t think much of it.

keith approaches her uncertainly, raising a tentative hand in hello, “princess? why’d you call me to the ship?”

she opens her eyes, and her expression immediately falls into something more relieved. keith offers a small smile and allura does her best to return it.

“welcome back, keith. i’m sorry for calling you here on such short notice, but kolivan said you weren’t very busy at the moment.”

keith nods, waiting for her to continue.

“i’m afraid some of the paladins seem to desperately need. . .a break,” she fidgets with a loose strand of hair framing her face, “i understand if it’s too much to ask of you, but i was wondering if you could accompany pidge, hunk, and lance to the mall?”

keith’s expression brightens almost immediately, but allura seems to take it as shock, smiling apologetically.

“i’d love to, princess. but if you don’t mind me asking, why do they need to be accompanied, and why couldn’t you or someone else here go with them?”

allura sighs, putting her hands on her hips, “the last time we left those three alone they launched a galra robot into space like some sort of colorful rocket.”

“like a firework?” keith asks, an eyebrows quirking in interest.

she stares back at him, bewildered, “what are fireworks?”

“. . .nevermind.”

“and as for one of us here on the castle going with them, shiro’s been oddly sick, and coran and i have a few planets to visit while they’re out and about.”

“oh,” keith says, noting that he should ask lance about shiro later on, “well, this is cool with me. you can entrust them to me, princess.”

allura brightens, clasping her hands together, “alright, thanks so much, keith!”

she places a hand on his shoulder, suddenly solemn, “i wish you luck, brave one.”

she turns swiftly to walk away, her long hair swishing behind her.

keith frowns, rubbing his shoulder. all he’s doing is going out to the spacemall with some of the paladins, so what was with the dramatics?

he takes out his old garrison communicator pidge had tweaked to work out in space, leaving lance a message.

[13:51] Keith: taking you three to the space mall

[13:54] Lance: wtf that’s rly sudden + we don’t need a babysitter?  
[13:55] Keith: word says you guys launched a robot into space the last time you were left alone  
[13:55] Lance: we did...  
[13:55] Lance: ..no such thing

keith rolls his eyes.

[13:57] Lance: aNYWAYS—  
[13:57] Lance: it’ll be nice to see you again

“oh,” keith says out loud, into the empty air.  
he runs a hand through his hair.

he stares at the device for a while.

he stares at the send button for a while.

“fuck it.”

[14:01] Keith: same to you x  
[14:01] Lance: ummmM  
[14:02] Lance: KEITH WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCk

[14:11] Lance: kEITH

[14:25] Lance: k E i THh  
[14:25] Lance: ughhhh fuck this

 

keith now understands why allura had been so ominous about his trip today, as lance is practically dragging him to a space-carousel as he speaks.

“you guys—lance, can you loosen your grip on my wrist, please?—those things are for kids!” he shouts in exasperation.

pidge turns to face keith, a few paces ahead of lance and himself, cupping her hands around her mouth and calling back, “i’m technically a kid, so you guys’re just joining me for safety purposes!”

hunk lets out a whoop—presumably to show his agreement, or maybe just because—and lance whips his head back to look at keith.

he winks, saying, “c’mon, you scared?”

keith rolls his eyes, smiling, “terrified.”

  
keith watches from a distance as the three deposit some alien currency into a machine and get four golden coins in return.

lance jogs to keith, grabbing his wrist once more and slapping the coin onto his palm. he uses his other hand to curl keith’s own into a fist.

“you ready for this?” he grins.

“born ready.”

keith can only find himself thinking: he's actually babysitting three children.

and he loves it.

  
he waits for the three get onto the earthen-like creatures—except most of them had six legs, or six eyes, or six somethings—only to notice that children had filled all the animals around the trio.

keith shrugs—after all, he’s just the “babysitter”—saying, “i’ll just wait for the three of you. i don’t really wanna be alone and surrounded by children.”

(surprise, he ends up surrounded by children anyways)

pidge grins maliciously. hunk tilts his head. and, maybe keith is being hopeful, but he thinks he sees lance’s face redden.

“just ride with lance,” says pidge, tone trying at nonchalant.

the girl running the carousel says something to keith in an alien language—it sounded suspiciously like she cussed him out—and motions impatiently for him to get on.

keith looks at lance. shrugs.

“is that okay with you?”

lance tugs at the collar of his shirt, mumbling, “yeah, man. that’s cool.”

keith gets on the horse. . .thing behind lance, smiling sheepishly at the girl. she rolls her eyes and starts the carousel.

it’s not unlike carousels he’d seen on earth at all, really. it moves a bit faster and keith can feel the cool, possibly artificial, breeze in his hair.

it’s nice.

although, he can see how tense lance is. it rolls off his shoulders in waves.

he wraps his arms around lance’s waist, resting his head on the boy’s shoulder. it’s a bold move, but hey, keith is a pretty bold guy. 

at first, lance jolts, clearly surprised, letting out a small noise he’d probably deny ever making later. soon enough, though, he relaxes into keith, all the tension evaporating into nothingness.

“thanks, lance,” keith whispers.

to be fair, keith was pretty quiet, so lance takes a while to respond.

his voice is just as low as keith’s, but somehow also eternally softer, “for what? i didn’t do anything, i just dragged you along for the ride.”

keith lets out a small puff of breath into lance’s jacket, something akin to a laugh, “i’ve just been stressed lately. there’s a lot going on and i definitely need this break. so, i’m thanking you.”

“well, uh,” lance says, “it’s not a problem. thanks for tagging along.”

“i’ve missed you, and the rest of the team. i’m just glad you let me.”

lance whips his head down to glare at keith, “okay, hold on, hold on. i did not emotionally prepare for whatever that was, holy shit.”

keith starts laughing, hard, at lance’s beyond noticeably blushing face, tilting his head into the boy’s neck as an attempt to muffle it.

lance mumbles something inaudible, slouching ever so slightly.

they hear a loud, and maybe slightly gross sniffle to their left, and keith looks up to see hunk staring back him with wide, watery eyes.

“k-keith, buddy. . .that was so sweet,” he wails.

“uhh,” keith grins, “thank you, hunk.”

“more like disgusting, if you ask me,” pidge deadpans from behind him.

keith pushes his face back into the crook of lance’s neck, whispering, “thank you so much, lance.”

it was quiet for a few ticks, but eventually lance just mumbles, “that tickles, keith.”


End file.
